Robert Truax

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From 1955-1958, Truax was assigned to the USAF under General Bernard A. Schriever cite web |url=http://www.astronautix.com/lvfam/truax.htm |format=html |title=Truax |work=Encyclopedia Astronautice |accessdate=2008-06-15 |publisher=astronautix.com ] , where Truax and Dr. Adolph K. Thiel headed the initial design studies and IRBM specifications for the PGM-17 Thor missile. Truax subsequently worked on the Navy's Viking rocket and UGM-27 Polaris missile. Truax studied the sea launching of rockets such as the Sea Bee and Sea Horse projects. [NOTE: The Nazi Germany Prüfstand XII was an earlier sea launch system.] After serving as 1957 American Rocket Society president, Truax retired from the USN in 1959 and headed the Aerojet-General Advanced Development Division and Aerojet's Sea Dragon project.cite magazine
last1=Stein |first1=Kathleen
url=http://www.omnimagonline.com/1979_10omnimag.htm |format=html |accessdate=2006-06-16
title=One Man Rocket: World's First Private Spaceship Readies for Take-Off
magazine=Omni |page=p45-64 of "The Omni Book of Space"
date = | year=]

externalimage|align=right|
http://neverworld.net/truax/ X-3 Volksrocket testing]

Truax Engineering

In 1966 Robert Truax founded Truax Engineering, which studied sea launch concepts similar to the earlier Sea Dragon: the Excalibur, the SEALAR, and the Excalibur S.

Infobox Weapon
is_missile=yes
name =X-3 Volksrocket


caption =placeholder for image
origin =
type = manned, sub-orbital, single-stage
used_by = never used
manufacturer =Truax Engineering
unit_cost=
propellant = Liquid oxygen & Jet-A kerosene
production_date=
service=
engine =4 Rocketdyne LR101 vernier engines
weight=
length=
height=
diameter=
wingspan=
speed=
vehicle_range=
ceiling=
altitude =convert|50|mi|km: burnout at convert|113000|ft|m
filling=
guidance =X-15/Dyna-soar inertial platform
detonation=
launch_platform=

Truax also designed the Skycycle X-2, which he unsuccessfully tested on April 15, 1972 and June 24, 1973, and which Evel Knievel unsuccessfully used at the Snake River Canyon in 1974.

Volksrocket

The X-3 Volksrocket was a reusable space tourism rocket planned by Robert Truax after Evel Knievel provided a $1000 research grantcite web |last=Regis |first=Ed |url=http://neverworld.net/truax/From_Canyons_To_Cosmos.pdf |format=pdf |accessdate=2006-06-15 |work= Great Mambo Chicken and the Transhuman Condition |publisher=neverworld.net |title=Truax ] for a pilot study. The rocket used surplus components and was tested through 1991.

References and Notes